Sunday, October 19, 2014

Time to Man Up

I hate that phrase. Always have. Puts me in mind of drill
sergeants or particularly dull and obnoxious gym teachers pushing you to
scramble up a knotted rope in front of the whole class.

But I can’t think of a better way to say it.

Implicit in the platitude is the suggestion that the way you are
behaving is unmanly, which is not a fair assumption. Possibly it also
intimates that to behave like a woman is a bad thing.

Which it isn’t, of course — provided you’re actually a
woman.

In yesterday’s post, I talked about the decline of
masculinity among millennials (and men of previous generations), and we looked at greed and the push for
universal higher education as societal causes of the epidemic of malaise on the
part of males generally, and their failure to assume their God-given role in
the family.

Today I’d like to look at a third contributing factor:

Feminism and the
Christian Family

First, real wages peaked in 1972. For 42 straight years
average take-home pay has steadily diminished when measured against the cost of
living as an increasing number of women entered the workforce. One may argue whether the increase was caused by feminism or whether it simply contributed to feminism, but there is probably some truth in both statements.

Some of this was necessary, and the independence and
employment of an increasing number of women has had certain socially
beneficially effects; that is indisputable. In some individual cases the
employment of women is inevitable and even desirable. Employment, even for
diminishing returns, is still preferable to the predations of the welfare
state. But in other cases, the increasing participation of women in the
workforce has been driven by nothing more noble than peer pressure or a desire
on the part of husbands or wives for upward mobility or security.

And, of course the drive for wage equality for women still underway has contributed significantly to the downward pressure on the average working wage. Faced with the prospect of equalizing pay for men and women, it is hardly shocking that employers have elected to pay men less rather than paying women more.

The bottom line is: Men, most of you will, over the course
of your career, make a whole lot less than you otherwise would.

Second, feminism in society has led directly to the pleasingly
equalitarian but entirely unscriptural doctrine of “mutual submission” in
Christian circles, rather than the home order established in creation and
taught by the apostles. This in turn leads to a reluctance to establish clear spheres of responsibility in the home, and therefore to unnecessary conflict. How much pressure does it create on the finances of
modern Christian families when nobody has the last word on the family budget? How many Christian families are on shaky ground because of partners who butt heads over every single issue at home in pursuit of the world’s false idea of equality rather than dividing their responsibilities bibically? How many men simply check out of their responsibilities rather than fight about authority constantly? How many Christian wives have become the de facto heads of their households?

I don’t know that it’s even possible to quantify.

Feminism has impacted the economy in other ways that make it
more difficult for men to find and keep good-paying jobs, but rather than invest
more time analyzing a problem we can’t fix, let’s spend a few moments looking
at the teaching of scripture on the subject of men, work and the family.

What Does the New
Testament Say?

Notwithstanding the massive pressures on the Christian
family, it is clear that it is not the Lord’s intention that we men all devolve
into the wimpy millennial stereotype, no matter how much
more pleasant and agreeable that might be.

I mean, after all, there’s a certain appeal to the
abdication of responsibility. Who doesn’t like the idea of an extra income? Who
couldn’t find a way to rationalize sending the kids to daycare or minding them ourselves while encouraging the wife to work when her job
pays more than ours? What’s wrong with collecting welfare when society has made
it next to impossible to find meaningful, well-compensated employment in our
field of study?

Unless you read the New Testament, of course. Let’s remind
ourselves what it teaches about a Christian man’s duties to family:

“If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”

(2 Thessalonians 3:10)

This verse is much mocked by leftists, who insist the obligation to work
was cultural and say delightful things like this about it when the verse is
quoted by Republican congressmen as a reason to rethink the welfare state:

“What’s important to understand is working was secondary in this context, this is
not so much a moral decree about work, the main message is a warning not to
take advantage of the Christian obligation to feed the hungry, especially if
you are screwing up the church and community tasked with doing that by behaving
like a twelve year-old socialite …”

— DarkSyde, Daily Kos

The point remains that, whether “secondary” or not, Paul’s
instruction here is to get out and get working. If this verse can be explained
away, any verse can. It is often taken generally, but should be especially of
concern to the serious Christian man.

Then there’s this one, which is even more explicit:

“… if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and
especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and
is worse than an unbeliever.”

(1 Timothy 5:8)

Stop and think about that: “worse than an unbeliever”. If
you have any priorities for the development of your own character, put
hard-working and dependable high up on that list. There’s more:

“… we labor, working with our own hands …”

(1 Corinthians 4:12)

We also have the example of the apostle himself, and those
who travelled with him. If anyone might have been considered exempt from the
obligation to provide for his own needs, surely Paul would qualify. But he
never took advantage of his status to freeload.

Then there is this verse, which suggests that there is more
for a Christian to consider than simply feeding his own family. Love should
lead us to make every effort to set aside what we can in order to care for
others who need our help as opportunity arises:

“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him
labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have
something to share with anyone in need.”

(Ephesians 4:28)

Time to Man Up

If you are a young Christian man entering your twenties and
wondering what the Lord would like you to do with your life in his service, let
me tell you, despite everything you see around you, that this is Job One: Learn
to pay your own way, and to make a little extra so that you can take care of
others.

Period.

There might be better ways of testifying to the greatness
and glory of Christ in this life and with prayer and diligence you may find
them, but I can assure you that if you fail to do your job in this regard, anything
else you might do in your life, realistically, will not matter very much. Nobody will take you seriously, and rightly so.

Time to man up, I’m afraid, even if it seems like nobody else is doing it.

I still hate that phrase. But I can’t think of a better way to say it.